Imaginary
by blemice
Summary: "I hate you, I hate you with every fibre of my being. I hate that you're not here, I hate that you're not real." "I know luce, I know." Who knew you could fall so hard for an imaginary person? (nalu)
1. Chapter 1

_**Imaginary chapter 1: Creations**_

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**Age: 6**

A little blonde girl sat on her windowsill as she stared out into the pouring rain. Her face was completely emotionless, her lips formed a straight line and her eyes had dark circles beneath them.

She hated the feeling.

Hated the feeling of being alone.

Unwanted.

Unloved.

On that day was the day of her dear mother's funeral. Layla Heartfilla was the woman that had cared for her since she was born and raised her to be positive and also to live up to her morals. However the caring smile and beautiful locks she once known was nothing but a memory all trapped in a little chest somewhere in deep in her heart where she swore would probably take a century to dig out.

She still had her father right? Wrong. Her father once held her very close to him, he would read her bedtime stories every night and smother her with kisses and hell even sing for her during the day and night. But a day after her mother died he felt nothing. No matter how many times she would go up to her father and ask him if he was alright or ask him to cheer up he would simple push her pass him and would not talk to her for the entire day.

The little girl chuckled softly. It was funny, a few days ago she was crying her eyes out and there she was, staring out into the open and not giving a damn about the world.

"Mama is this what it feels like to be alone?" She whispered as her hands touched the glass, "Because I hate it. I don't like it mama." She sobbed.

Pulling her legs close to her chest and wrapped her arms around them she began to cry even louder. Tears stained her shirt, her toes curled up and her hands grasped into a fist.

"Make it go away mama." She whispered, "MAKE IT GO AWAY!"

She repeated it over and over hoping that her wish would come true like in fairytales, to have her shining prince on a beautiful stallion to come and save her and they'll live happily ever after.

Forever and ever.

But dreams don't come true.

Even she knew that, but she just kept believing.

Then suddenly an idea dawned to her. If she didn't want to be alone she could make a friend! Yes, wouldn't that be easier?

She could make the perfect friend, the type that could protect her and always be there for her! Yes! That's amazing!

However whilst thinking of all the ways of making the perfect friend she knew deep in her heart, it was still imaginary.

"Hmm hair…" She bit her lip trying to think of the color, how about pink? That's her favorite color after all. "Yeah, pink. Ooh! Then he'll have a scarf so he won't ever be cold! Then he has to smile all the time so he's always happy! Then he should be always really hungry so whenever I can't finish my food I can always give it to him," She giggled, "Then he has to be funny and really strong! So he can protect me, especially from fire!" She shivered at the thought.

Finally she was done and slowly shut her eyes.

_"Hey mommy, ever wondered if cats could fly?" She asked her mother. _

_"Ever wondered if blue cats could fly?" The two giggled._

"Oh wait! And he should also have a flying blue cat because I bet mama would like that." Her voice softened as she said that but still kept her eyes closed.

"On the count of 3 I'm going to open my eyes and my friends will be there right mama?" The girl smiled. The only replied she got was the sound of thunder from outside, she took it as a yes.

"Alright," She licked her lips in anticipation.

1

…

…

…

2

…

…

…

3

Her eyes fluttered opened and her mouth suddenly turned into a big, big grin.

"Hey lucy! Let's go and play!"

"Aye sir!"

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**Hey guys!**

**So this story will go on like a timeline, sort of like a age timeline. For each age there'll be 2-3 chapters if not more.**

**hhhhhh we're (yes there's two people writing this =3= ) so excited for this! :D anndd please don't flame! It's our first nalu story! n **

**reviews are our fuel! 3 **


	2. Chapter 2

**_Imaginary chapter 2: Nothing but warmth_**

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**Age: 6**

A week after the incident of her two new friends, she swore she could never been happier in her life.

The two were name Natsu and Happy. Natsu meant summer, that was her favourite season. But people were shocked when they found out she liked summer, because they thought a young lady of the heartfilla family would surely choose a nicer and calmer season like spring! But oh how they were wrong.

Anyways, Natsu was the one that had pink hair. He was only one year older than her because she liked the thought of someone older to protect her and plus, she thought it was cool.

Then there was happy, the flying blue cat that never left natsu's side or was always hovering above the two. She felt the need to name him Happy was because he always smiled, yes a cat that could smile. And somehow he always brightened her mood when she was feeling down or even on a rainy day.

Ah yes, they really were the bestest friends Lucy could ask for.

The maids that served her and her father in the big mansion did realise she had started talking to the air or laughing at certain times. For a minute they thought that she had gotten insane or possibly missing her mother too much. But when a close maid of hers named virgo found out what happened, they all felt somewhat happy for her.

Whether imaginary or not at least the young master was happy.

~o~

"Hey lucy," Natsu peered over her shoulder while she continued drawing, "What are you drawing?"

She jumped in shock but soon calmed when she realised it was only silly ol' Natsu. Lucy straightened her back and coughed a little before replying, "It's just a dragon Natsu."

His eyes widened and he tilted his head in confusion, "Eh? Drag- ons?"

"Yeah dragons! Ever heard of them before?" Lucy questioned as she continued to stare at him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Are they some sort of food?" He grinned.

"No stupid! You really never heard of dragons before!?" She exclaimed before shaking his shoulders roughly making him laugh. Lucy finally sighed in defeat before dragging him to sit on the floor.

"Dragons are big big creatures that fly in the sky and they have really really BIG wings!"

"So they're like birds? Which means we can eat them right?" Natsu jumped in excitement.

"No! Augh! But I guess you can say they're sorta like birds, but only bigger. They don't have feathers or really- a beak. But they have scales, like a fish." Lucy added before earning a nod from natsu in reply.

"And not to mention they can breathe…" She leaned in close to his ear, "Fire!"

His eyes widened as his grin began to widen as well. Suddenly he jumped up and ran towards her bed yanking the blankets. He wrapped it around himself while his hands gripped on the ends; quickly he climbed up onto her study table and began to flap.

"I'm a drag…on!" He mumbled in between but was still shouting in excitement.

"Geez Natsu come down from there! You're going to get hurt real bad." Lucy pouted and bit her cheek.

Just then Happy popped up beside natsu. For a minute he stared at Lucy, then back to natsu, then lucy then back to natsu. Finally after processing what was happening his mouth dropped open.

"Natsu can fly too?" He cried.

"No he can't! Augh, Natsu just get down from there!" She hissed.

"Never!" He snarled. Before she knew it he made a loud roar before jumping off the table and flapping continuously. For a moment, Lucy thought he could actually fly since he was her imagination after all but then immediately regretted it when he came plummeting right next to her and groaning.

"Definitely never doing that again." Natsu mumbled before he continued moaning as he curled up into a ball.

"Stupid." The blonde chuckled before patting his head softly.

Suddenly she felt him stiffen underneath her hand and slowly raised his head to look at her. It was weird, natsu had a weird colour on his face or more like around his cheeks. Was it because he was cold? Or was it just her mind fooling with her?

"Natsu are you okay?" She asked snapping him out of his daze.

"Yeah! I'm perfectly fine!' He grinned his signature toothy grin. Before Lucy could even add on anything the door swung open.

There stood her father with a disgusted look on his face as he stared intensely at Lucy. She gulped before backing away slightly but realised Natsu and Happy were gone.

His eyes slowly examined her room that was in a mess with chairs and tables tipped over, the insides of pillows and blankets all over the place and the amount of her sketchy doodles that fell from the table and scattered on the floor.

"Why," He walked slowly towards her, "Is your room in a mess?"

She squeaked as she tried to find her words, "U-um I was playing w-with my friends."

He raised his eyebrow, "Friends?"

"Y-yeah." She squeaked again.

"Oh Lucy," He knelt down to her height before soothing her hair with his hand. She felt herself get slightly more comfortable and felt a smile starting to form, was her father finally warming up to her? Was she going to get the once loving father back again?

"What are you talking about? You don't have any friends."

She froze.

The smile that she was going to form vanished; her eyes went warm to cold and her head tilted down.

She was never going to get that father back again.

Never.

It was like that everyday, he would spit in her face about what she didn't have, how she should be ashamed of herself for not getting that life and how she was the cause of her mother's death. Lucy Heartfilla took it all in, because she felt that she deserved it and because fathers are always right,

Right?

"Actually," She felt herself say but could stop it. Her mind panicked but her mouth said otherwise, "I do have friends."

"Oh really now?" He mused, "who are they?"

"Natsu and Happy." Lucy instantly said.

"And where are they now?"

"I-"

For the first time in her life, she was at the lost of words. Usually she would think of a way to get out of such a situation but at that very moment, she didn't know what to do. Lucy's eyes wandered around looking for Natsu and Happy and found them standing behind him staring at Lucy with a soft smile and wide eyes.

"They're right there!" She exclaimed pointing towards his back.

"Hi!" The two said with a big grin.

For a minute her father stared, and stared and stared.

He should be happy right? He should be happy that she got friends right? In fact he should be proud! He should.

He should.

However instead he scrunched up his face as he continued to stare, and finally her father cleared his throat.

"Where are they?"

"What?"

"Where are they?"

He repeated with an emotionless look but she could feel him glaring at her with pure hatred. Not in a loving parents' hatred, no, but real and pure hatred.

"I told you papa they're right there-"

"DON'T LIE TO ME." He slapped her hard.

She whimpered before falling to the floor but not giving in to the tears locked inside.

"I'm not lying they're right there! Natsu, Happy say something!" She pleaded.

"Mister!" They said in unison whilst waving their arms around.

"YOU LIAR!" He bellowed before his hand came in contact with her face again, "YOU LIAR! YOU LIED ABOUT LAYLA, I BET YOU KILLED HER! YOU KILLER!" He screamed before slapping even harder which managed to get a few tears to flow out of her eyes.

"I'm not a killer papa I'm not! I swear I'm not!" Lucy cried before curling herself into a ball before she received a few more hits and slaps and screams from her father.

All Natsu and Happy could do was yell "STOP! STOP!" from behind him. Through her blurry vision she could tell they were crying as well, it felt as if they felt her sorrow and pain too.

Finally after a few more minutes her father stalked out of her room kicking away anything in his path and slammed her door shut.

Happy and Natsu immediately ran over to her side as they all wept together.

Even though they weren't real, their hugs sure felt like it.

"I swear I'm not a killer! I swear!" She cried as she dug herself into Natsu's embrace, "You believe me right? Do you?"

The two nodded viciously, "Of course we do! We're your friends! Don't blame yourself it isn't your fault lushy." Happy said and patted her head.

"Wha-what if it is? What if-"

"Lucy," Natsu growled causing her to stop, "Don't you dare blame yourself, it isn't your fault. You hear me? It isn't your fault. There is no what ifs, there's only the truth," He hugged her tightly, "And the truth is it isn't your fault."

Lucy continued to sob even louder before murmuring thank you into his shirt.

She felt safe, she felt warm, she felt like nothing was ever going to hurt her again in his embrace. Because she knew they were always going to protect her no matter what, because they promised, and promises are promises.

But soon she felt nothing.

She felt nothing but air.

She felt nothing but the cold air of her room.

She felt nothing but the emptiness.

And she heard nothing but her own sobs.

They would often disappear and it wasn't her choice. She couldn't control when they were around and when they would leave.

But at that moment, she wished she had the choice.

Lucy curled up into the blanket that was natsu's wings to make herself feel warm again. She wanted to feel safe and alive again.

But it just wasn't the same.

"I don't want to be alone," She murmured, "I really don't."

Somewhere she pictured Natsu repeating the words "You aren't" over and over again.

Somehow and somewhere,

She wasn't alone.

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**hey guys!**

**We hope you liked this chapter even though its pretty sad ono**

**Next chapter will be the last age of 6! Then moving onto 10 **

**Reviews are our fuel! owo **


	3. Chapter 3

_**Imaginary Chapter 3: Make the impossible possible**_

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**Age: 6 **

Lucy sure was a weirdo and that was one thing he could make sure of.

It had been a week since they went and stole a small toy from her friend Lisanna's house and Lucy had never let go of it since. It came to a point where she would even bring it when she went to the bathroom or heck, when she's even taking a bath! But of course never brought it into the water.

The toy was a small plush white fluffy… thing. You would think that it was a snowman since it's nose was a carrot and had black coal eyes but natsu and happy thought otherwise.

_"I'm telling you lucy it's a dog, just look at it!" He exclaimed as he kept pointing at it trying to signal Lucy over and over again._

_ "Aye! I agree with natsu! It's a dog!" Happy happily agreed while hovering over it with his usual 'happy' grin. _

_ The blonde sighed, "Have you guys ever even seen a real dog before?"_

_ "No!" They replied with proud looks on their faces and of course their stupid grins. _

Dog or not Lucy loved it- no in fact she _adored _it. The little heartfilla felt so proud of herself for owning that small plush toy that she went around showing it off to whoever she met and yes, that meant she bragged about it almost every time she met Natsu and Happy.

And they were sure sick of it.

But happy swore, natsu was the most disgusted. For a little flying blue cat like him, he already knew his partner was jealous of a plush toy.

But anybody could've noticed of course except for lucy. His jealousy was pretty obvious since Natsu always frowned whenever he even laid eyes on the plush toy. In fact most of the time he just kept trying to get Lucy away from the plush toy whether it made her happy or not, he actually thought that Lucy was too good for the small white plush.

But then again,

It was just a toy.

But to Natsu? It was more than that.

"C'mon Lucy! Just play with us." Natsu whined as he tugged on Lucy's hair.

"Hey!" She exclaimed before rubbing her head, "Okay first off OW? And secondly alright let's go play." The blonde said and was suddenly dragged by Natsu. As they were running Natsu's eyes immediately darted towards the plush in her arms and suddenly hissed before bringing them to an immediate stop.

"Not with that thing." He sneered.

Lucy gasped before glaring at him, "The thing has a name you know!"

"Yeah, blue or something right?"

"It's plue idiot! And why can't we play with him?"

"Because," He paused as he held his breath not sure whether to tell her or not.

"Well?-"

"you always spend time playing with him and not us!" He finally

Confessed, "You drag him around EVERYWHERE, you talk about him ALL THE TIME! And when me and happy just want to play with you, you usually just ignore us and play with that… blue thing." He scrunched his face, "It makes us feel like you're already forgetting about us."

Lucy took a moment to process what happened before smiling softly. She put her hand on Natsu's shoulder and suddenly brought them to a hug.

"Look Natsu, I'll never forget about you guys you hear me? I'll never. I'm so sorry that I've been ignoring you and happy for Plue, it's just that its been a long time since I had a toy," her eyes darted towards the floor as she began to blush, "But now that I know I haven't been playing with you guys, I promise I'll never ignore you guys again!"

The little girl held out her pinky with a bright grin. The little boy took a moment before he raised out his pinky and intertwined it with hers. And they both realized they had just signed an imaginary contract that their lives probably depended on.

"You promise promise?"

"I promise promise."

The two smiled towards each other as they had a moment of silence. It wasn't like those awkward silences where you wouldn't know what to say or do and you start to panic, no. In fact it wasn't awkward at all but instead it was more comforting.

However during the silence Lucy knew she might break that promise someday.

And she didn't know why.

~0~

The three sat underneath an apple tree while the sun shown brightly as the cool breeze passed by them steadily.

They had a fun day going on small adventures around the town thanks to spetto for quietly sneaking them out of the mansion without her father knowing or fuming. Plus they didn't dare go back until her father went out on his daily drinking nights and so they were extremely hungry. And what do hungry 6 year olds do? They steal.

Remember when Lucy was living up to her mother's morals? Well desperate times calls for desperate measures no? And plus they were kids (in lucy's defense).

"Hey Lucy," Natsu yawned, "Just a question, why didn't you give me a last name?"

She blinked, "What?"

"A last name," He repeated, "I mean everyone has a last name! Like you heartfilla and that levy girl you hangout with um… mcgarden right?"

She tilted her head still a little confused, "Why do you want a last name anyways?"

"Because its normal to have a last name," Natsu stated simply, "And I'm normal right?"

And right at that second she froze.

He wasn't normal, no not one bit. Well it was more like she wasn't normal, in fact most people called her delusional.

But Natsu? He wasn't normal at all. He wasn't even real. The little boy was simply made from her pure imagination, nothing more as someone or something to accompany her.

Right?

So how was she going to tell Natsu? Does he even know that he isn't real? Does he even know that he's simply her imagination?

But yet, he felt so real.

"Um natsu," She started slowly but nervously, "You do realize you're not actually re-"

"Nah, you don't need to tell me," He suddenly interrupted, "I already know I'm not real."

Her eyes widened before sitting closer to him, "Then why do you want to be normal?"

She stared at him intensely wondering if she had somehow hurt his feelings. Real or not, his feelings were probably one of the only ones (other than happy) that really mattered to her. Lucy felt like a mother worrying for her child, the type that wanted to know their secrets, what they were hiding and what had happened.

Natsu grinned and replied, "Well we all have dreams right? Like when we grow up you want to become something, like something really cool."

The little blonde nodded.

"Well then, can't an imagination dream?"

Lucy fell silent.

Had her imagination really gone wild? Had she really gotten insane? His words, his every existence felt so real. He felt like a normal ordinary 6 year old boy who just wanted nothing but fun and trouble.

But he wasn't.

He wasn't real.

"I don't know. They're not real so how can they?" She questioned while she bit her lip, "I mean they're not a living being so its impossible for them to have their own mind."

Those words coming out of a 6 year old girl was sure something. Homeschooled or not she was still quite intelligent when it comes to brain teasers or just high level questions. Even if it was the wrong answer, she made it seem like it was the right one.

"Ever heard of the saying making the impossible possible?"

"Yes but its false, my tutor evergreen told me!" Lucy said with pride in her voice.

"What if I do make the impossible possible?" He grinned again.

"Then I'll," She trailed off wondering what should she give in return. She couldn't give him things that normal people use because what good does it do to him anyways? Its not like he could really buy a bunch of things with a load of money since no one could see him and he is in fact imaginary which will bring him no use.

Lucy then realized.

She had to give him something…

Impossible.

"Alright if you do make the impossible possible then I will give you," Before she could carry on Natsu was already absolutely focused on a leaf on his nose. She flicked his forehead earning a short "ow" from him, "A last name."

His whole face lit up within a second and the biggest grin he probably made formed immediately. And suddenly he pounced on her giving her a big and tight hug.

It felt warm again, it felt safe again and she felt like there was no tomorrow.

Lucy absolutely loved his hugs even though she wouldn't admit it. But in reality she didn't really get any hugs did she? The last real hug she got was from her mother and that was it. Her father obviously couldn't care less and the maids didn't dare to hug a heartfilla.

But at that moment she didn't care whether his hugs were real or not or even his very own existence. All that mattered at that moment was that she felt protected again.

She felt like lucy again.

Natsu buried his head into her head and giggled, "You got yourself a deal luce!"

She cocked her eyebrow, "Luce?"

"Yeah luce! Don't you like that name?"

"But it sounds like a pet's name." she grumbled.

"it's a nickname dummy. You give me nicknames too! Like idiot and stupid!"

"Not to mention poohead and weirdo."

"Look who's talking weirdo." he stuck out his tongue.

"Pfft whatever." She rolled her eyes.

Lucy pondered for awhile and repeated the word over and over again as if she was testing out a new desert from a world famous chef. Out of all the nicknames that the maids and her friends gave her, that was something she could really get used to.

"Hmm Luce," She smiled, "I like it."

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**There you have it folks! The last chapter of Age 6. qwq **

**Next up will be the age of 10! :D**

**And thank you so much for all the awesome reviews! really glad you guys like it! OWO**

**Stay tuned uwu **


	4. Chapter 4

**_HEADS UP: this chapter is written in lucy's perspective! _  
**

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_**Imaginary chapter 4: You're a rash **_

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**Age: 10 **

It was a weird feeling.

I couldn't say it was bad, but it itched. It itched a lot.

It was like a giant rash moving around your body trying to torture your every move and hissing the temptation to scratch it, to stab it, to burn it with fire. The feeling just made you lose your mind and to lose yourself most importantly. But weirdly enough, at some point the rash actually felt... comfortable.

I know, it's crazy. How can a rash possibly be comfortable? a rash was supposed to drive you to the edge of losing your sanity, it was supposed to break you. Break every last bone in your body and leave you crumbling down asking it "why? why won't you go away?".

And I thought It was crazy too, so I went and asked people around me what was I feeling. To my disappointment I didn't get a real answer, not at all. They all gave me the answer they thought I wanted to hear not the answer that I wanted. They all told me I was delusional, insane, crazed. Some even told me I should go to therapy or some sort of rehabilitation center, maybe even to the asylum. As crazy as I thought myself to be I knew they were over exaggerating, either that or I was really losing my mind.

I couldn't blame them. I really couldn't. It was pretty clear that I was crazy, that I was just living in my own little world indifferent from society, an outcast.

and I couldn't blame _them _either.

Them referring to natsu and happy.

Natsu was a year older than me and he already grew a lot since our first encounter. His hair was pinker and his facial features were more masculine than before but he still looked like your average eleven year old. He was pretty skinny compared to a lot of boys at his age, but then again he was tall so I figured he digested all the fat in him leaving his skin to cover his bones. His eyes were darker than before, I would know because every time the sun shone at him his eyes didn't reflect the light and make them brighter, instead they were the same. it was a solid dark brown color that only winced.

Usually he wore a plain dark blue hoodie with a pair of cargo shorts hung loosely on his hips and a pair of simple black slippers that seemed almost too big for him.

Then there was happy, a joyful little flying blue cat that I swore was the most optimist thing I've ever seen. No matter how bad the situation was he would try to brighten up the mood and tell us bad puns which... weren't actually that bad. Most of the time I laughed along just to see the grin on that little feline's face when he knew he achieved something. The only physical change that happened to him was his height and it didn't change much, at all.

They really were friends you would treasure oh-so dearly.

But the truth was, they weren't real.

You heard me, they were only figments of my imagination.

That was my feeling towards them. They were like a rash, a comfortable yet torturous rash. I was supposed to hate them because they weren't supposed to be real, I was supposed to hate myself for being so crazed. But instead, it was the opposite.

I didn't care.

I didn't care if I was insane or delusional about them. all that mattered was that they were real to me. They were as real as I wanted them to be, at least real enough to talk to and to make me feel safe.

At least they were real enough to be my friend.

It was on august the 7th when my dad enrolled me to a public school not to mention the first school I was going to go to. Like every other kid that was ready to enter school, I was absolutely ecstatic. For a whole week before school started, everyday I would call both lisanna and levy about everything the school had to offer which was pretty normal for them since they obviously went to school too. And going to school was something I had initially been looking forward to be attending. I mean who wouldn't be?

And that's when everything shattered when I entered those two gates.

On that day I thought luck was really on my side, I had that spark in me chanting _everything is going to be okay._ In fact everything was going to be great! But it wasn't. It wasn't at all. School was completely opposite from what Lisanna and levy told me. Instead of students giving you warm welcomes, they only scowled at me and pointed at me with accusing fingers. I was confused at first of course, i was thinking "is there something on my face?" but I found out soon enough from one of the boys who scrunched up their faces when they saw me. They whispered to their friend beside them who was snickering like crazy "Its that rich kid heartfilla. I bet she's a pain. she's not even pretty."

When people said movies were fiction, at that moment I felt as if they were nothing but the truth. It was like in those cliche movie moments where the new kid was constantly picked on even though he/she never even said anything and they only received such treatment just because of rumors about them.

rumors rumors rumors.

Society was weird. Humanity was weird. Humans were weird. It's funny how such a simple lie about one person could effect a whole community so greatly that they actually started to believe and have such a strong belief in the lie. They didn't make sure if it was even true or not, they didn't even check if there was any evidence to prove it. There was no court, there was no debate, there was no nothing.

They just believed it.

As simple as that.

You haven't even got to the most funniest part yet, in fact you're not even close. However I'll just get straight to the point.

The funniest part of this whole rumor thing is that the victim, the person the lie was about brought themselves to believe it too. And such a small lie that turned into a great belief could manage to break the person down. It made them want to die in a hole, to tell society to leave them alone shouting "haven't I suffered enough?". But no, they just kept attacking and attacking. They never even stopped to think of the person's own feelings, they never stopped to think what would it be like if they put themselves in their shoes. it was none of that. Instead most of them either was thinking or said the same _'it was for the fun of it.'_

I would know because that's how I felt exactly at that moment.

I wanted to hide in a hole.

I wanted to run away.

I wanted to escape.

"You're so depressing luce."

I spun around and to my surprise Natsu sat there with his hands gripping onto the cold metal chains that kept the swings from falling. He was swinging in a steady beat, not too high but just until his feet could touch the ground. A flash of white teeth was shown before me bringing his signature natsu grin to life.

as I was inspecting him I noticed he never broke eye contact with the clear blue sky. His head was tilted upwards whilst he hummed a little tune that I wasn't familiar with. In fact he hummed a different tune everyday. From sad to happy, from depressed to excited. As he hummed I noticed every four beats his tongue would go out and lick his lips wet before going back inside his mouth and his eyes would close for a second before opening them again. The fascinating thing was that every time they opened I could see the colors of his pupils fade out a little like a dark shade of gray... which wasn't black. I asked him why once, but he didn't reply. I figured it was a personal question so I avoided the subject as much as possible.

It was daily routine for us to sit at the swings. because that was the only equipment in the school that nobody bothers playing or notice. And no one really noticed me anyways, so I figured I'd fit right in with the swings.

"It's not nice to read people's minds you know." I giggled before bumping my seat against his playfully.

his grin widened, "Well I can't help it. You always had that boring expression when I come so I always kept wondering what's going on in that weird luigi head of yours."

I huffed before recalling the time when we were playing mario cart where I was luigi and he was yoshi. He thought my name was pretty similar to luigi's (which I thought was stupid) so he decided to describe my every actions as 'the luigi'.

Honestly though I'd choose luce over luigi any day.

"Stop calling me luigi!" I whined before grumbling angrily which earned a loud laugh from him. I swayed slightly and started to notice Happy wasn't around.

"He decided to check out the classrooms if that's what you're thinking." He smirked as he leaned back against his swing.

"I swear that little cat's gonna get lost." I mumbled remembering the last time happy went around the school alone. It took us about 2 hours to find him and he was hiding in the janitor's closet all along. That little bastard.

"Nah don't worry, I told him to only check out the third floor or else we're not going fishing." Natsu said while kicking specks of dust from the mat. His eyes were darted to his feet as if he was intrigued in them.

Wait a second.

"We're going fishing?" I deadpanned.

"Yeah! why not?" He asked confused.

"First off I can't handle you idiots goofing off while I do all the fishing. And secondly YOU GUYS DON'T EVEN FISH!" I cried as my hands dug into my hair and ruffled them messily in frustration.

He pouted with his eyebrows furrowed and started to sway back and forth continuously in a fast pace, "Aw c'mon luce."

"no."

And after that there was silence.

There was no humming.

There was no reply.

There was no swaying.

I turned to look at him wondering what in the world happened. He wasn't usually the type to sink into silence, he was more of the one that wanted to swim out of the silence. When I turned however, I was met with his eyes boring into mine. His grip on the metal chain tightened while his eyes were dead serious.

There was a long moment of silence as we stared at each other wondering what to say- well I was. I wasn't sure what he was doing, not the slightest clue. He didn't have his usual jokes or enjoyable conversation starters, instead he was silent. But his lips were parted slightly as if he was about to say something.

anything.

and he did.

"What happened luce?" He said with concern laced in his voice. His hands slowly went up and poked my cheek sending a painful sensation that went on for a few seconds making me hiss in pain.

I then remembered there was a bruise on my cheek. If I remembered from my bathroom break, it was red and extremely visible.

"Don't worry, I bumped into a pole."

"yeah right." he scoffed, "You hardly bump into poles."

"well then today's my unlucky pole day."

"Luce."

For a minute I pondered wondering if I should tell him. Would he tell anyone else? Would he go and beat him up? Would he do anything that would ruin my reputation?

Tch.

who was I kidding.

He couldn't.

He wasn't real.

I sighed in defeat, "You know um... that midnight boy?" I shifted in my seat,"Well uh... he 'accidentally' bumped into me with a metal baseball bat."

Natsu stayed silent for a while before gawking, "How are you not dead?"

I laughed, "it was only the tip. So it didn't hurt that much I guess."

A cough was heard making me flinch slightly only to realize it came from natsu. I continued to sway slowly, but he didn't budge one bit. Instead he had a fearsome look on his face with his hands clenched into a fist. After a few minutes of awkward tension he finally turned towards me.

"I'm gonna beat this kid up for hurting you!" He said determined as he jumped up from his seat which made me jump up too.

My mind started to be filled with questions and questions, a never-ending cycle of them. How was it possible anyways? We already talked about it a bunch of times, about him and his non-existent self, him being indifferent from everyone else just like me. So how could he possibly beat that kid up-

"Do you trust me?"

I snapped out of my thoughts.

"what?" I managed to splutter.

"I said." He repeated before his hands were placed on both sides of me head securing them in place, "Do you trust me?"

There it was again.

The rash.

The itch.

The unbearable itch that was there, it was that itch that I wanted to do something about it, I wanted to solve it. But I didn't know how. I didn't know what to do at all, I hadn't got the slightest clue how I should heal it.

At that very moment, my mouth opened. It opened. And my mind exploded in happiness that I was finally going to say something that would resolve everything, that we would back in our seats swinging merrily and talking about what not. I was finally going to say something to him, I really was.

But I didn't.

My mouth was just open.

Eating wind.

I screamed mentally asking myself _why don't you just say something idiot?! _I wanted to. I really wanted to. I knew the answer I was going to say was going to be a promise I was going to keep for eternity, it was a promise I had to treasure greatly.

But I knew I was going to break it one day.

I just knew it.

However the look on his face was filled with so much worry that almost made me insane from guilt.

So i said it.

"Yes."

I said it.

"Good enough for me." natsu stood up with his usual grin before walking off into the crowded playground with kids everywhere. All I could do was stare at his departing figure as his image slowly faded.

"Wait Natsu!" I cried stopping him immediately, "what are you going to do?'

Everything stopped for a split second as if the world only focused on us and only us. His feet were planted firmly in the dirt with his stupid grin still plastered on his face before he raised up his hand and waved.

"I'm just going to see this _pole _that you bumped into."

~0~

The next day the boy who 'accidentally' bumped into me came into class late with a bloody nose. Apparently he ran into a tree in front of the school gate that morning.

And the weird thing was that, we didn't have any trees in front of our school gate.

There was nothing obstructing the entrance.

It was all plain.

Nothing insight.

Not even a pole.

* * *

**THERE IS OFFICIALLY ONE PERSON TAKING OVER THIS STORY! **

**Author's note: Hey guys! I decided to experiment with lucy's perspective in this chapter, and I might continue with lucy's perspective throughout the age of 10. And I've got to say, it was pretty fun writing this chapter! ouo **

**Sorry no happy goodness this chapter qnq maybe in the next chapter? quq **

**Reviews are my fuel! uwu **


	5. Chapter 5

_**Imaginary chapter 5: Gray skies **_

* * *

**Age: 10 **

When people said that non living things didn't have feelings, I laughed.

That for one, is completely false. Because the sky wasn't happy for a week.

I remember swinging with my hands up in the air trying to reach the sky like every other kid. It was blue, clear blue with patches of white clouds painted in the sky, it was basically you're everyday sky in magnolia. And I liked it.

But sometimes I wondered if the sky liked it.

On that day, was the first time I saw the sky turn gray and dull, the patches of white clouds started to huddle up together and blending in with the dull color. And all of a sudden, there was no more blue nor the bright yellow that shadowed over my skin. Then I felt droplets of water stinging my skin, the body of clouds casting over me as I stared at the sky in wonder.

Then I realized, the sky was crying.

Gradually the crying became stronger and intense. I was soaked in tears from the sky, lines of electricity and light ran through the air making a loud groan of some sort. Natsu and Happy told me that it was called rain, and they told me it was normal to rain on such days. However I thought otherwise.

The first thought shot through my mind immediately as I ran up to the top of the slide. The thought was to talk to the sky, because I was concern about the sky being so depressed all of a sudden. I remembered wailing and yelling at the sky to tell me what was wrong, to see if I could help. But all I got as a reply was the loud groan from the lights running through the gray sky.

A teacher named miss aries came running towards me shouting "get down lucy heartfilla! It's raining so play inside!". She was wrong, she was so very wrong. I wasn't playing, in fact I wasn't even laughing or having fun, I was worried. And that's what I told her, but she brushed it off as if she didn't hear me.

"Lucy heartfilla you come down this instant!"

"No! I'm talking to the sky!" I retorted.

I knew I was making a fool out of myself, I wasn't stupid. It was obvious that my classmates and students were leaning against the window of the entrance as they stared at me whispering how much of a freak I was. But I didn't care, I wanted to help the sky, to help it solve it's problems, I wanted to be there for the sky.

But no.

They didn't understand.

Eventually I was dragged into the building by a few male teachers yanking my arms as I struggled against their grips. The sky continued to cry and cry like there was no tomorrow.

Soon, I understood why the sky was crying.

Because no one cared for it, no one bothered about the sky or the state of the sky.

They just cared for their own selves.

It didn't matter to them whether the sky was sad, the only thing that mattered was that it gave them light. If the sky cried they would go and lock themselves into their shelters to wait for it to finish crying, not once asking how it felt or what was going on.

At that very moment I hated the human race.

I despised it.

A week after the incident people started to label me as weird, an outcast. And thanks to our homeroom teacher's stupid new seating each week, nobody sat next to me.

Ever.

Well except for natsu and happy who technically weren't part of the class. But it sure was fun to learn with them though.

Usually in class, natsu would whisper how boring the subject was or how the teacher was just plain boring. And sometimes he would make witty puns about the teacher which I would giggle quietly in reply. Most of the time he did all of the talking and I would either nod or do a small gesture in reply. Luckily, he didn't mind, he didn't once question why I was so quiet. I figured that he lived with me for long enough to know my character, whilst I secretly still didn't know his all too well.

I was loner, and everyone knew that. Heck, even lisanna and levy knew that! I was simply awkward and un-confident when it came to making friends. so I decided instead of putting people through the misery of trying to be friends with a girl like me, I decided to shut myself away from society.

Even if I did want to make friends it was too late anyways. Rumors and rumors about me had spread rapidly throughout the grade making me as if I was some sort of freak or monster that was admitted to that school.

I didn't mind, in fact I intended it to stay that way for as long as I lived.

~0~

My class wasn't something to shout about, it wasn't the least bit interesting. My class was your everyday type of class that had cliques and such. for example, the so-called 'cool' boys and the so-called 'cool' girls, the nerds, the delinquents, the artsy people etc. There wasn't one person (besides me) that didn't NOT stand out from the rest of them. They were all known for something GOOD. They had friends, they had people to compliment them and wouldn't mind being partners with them.

they sure were lucky.

When winter break ended we were back to school and back to the same old room that was used for I don't know how long.

I pushed the door open as I timidly walked into the class. Everyone was staring at me, disgust clearly plastered on their faces. Some scrunched up their noses and some whispered to their friend next to them. They went back to what they were doing once I sat down in my seat with natsu and happy trailing along as they talked about pudding.

During the mornings it was okay for me to talk to natsu and happy because nobody would care to notice what I was doing anyways, not to mention everyone was busy talking about whatever they wanted.

"Hmm nothing's changed since we came back." Natsu observed the class with a curious look.

"even the stain on the roof hasn't been removed yet." Happy mumbled, "this spot is going to stink of puke for the rest of year." He made barfing face causing me and natsu to erupt in laughter.

"Hey! Look lucy!" Natsu exclaimed as he pointed at the door. A black haired boy entered with a simple tank top and black shorts. He had fairly spiky hair but natsu's were obviously more spikier than his, the boy's eyes weren't that big or small either and he had fairly pale skin. To be honest he actually was quite good looking, but I didn't find myself that attracted in him, at all. But I figured the other girls were already drooling over him once he stepped through those doors.

"Whose the squinty eyes?" Natsu grumbled as he got up in a fighting stance whislt I laughed nervously tugging on his shirt to sit down.

"He's probably a new kid, probably one of those stupid 'cool' boys again." I mumbled continuing to stare at him talking to the group of boys huddled around a table.

"Eh figured, he looks like he's a transfer or something-" He paused as his eyes widened, "WHY IS HE NAKED!?"

"NAKED!?" I cried as I turned towards his direction seeing his clothing all off leaving his boxers in view. The girls shrieked with blood running down their noses while the boys fanatically tried to get his clothes back on.

"Looks like we got a stripper here." he snickered along with happy.

"Wonder if he gets paid for stripping." I grinned as the three of us laughed merrily about the boy.

Then suddenly a pair of eyes stared at mine, but they weren't natsu's.

They were the boy's.

He stared at me with a curious look as his friends continued talking and talking. He raised his eyebrow and mouthed a silent... hi?

Immediately I turned away from him as I went back to my conversation with happy and natsu. But I still felt his eyes staring at my back as if he was burning them.

"Hello class!" The teacher's voice sang as she entered the classroom with a load of books in her arms. Everyone turned to the direction of the teacher's friendly smile and said good morning to her since they claimed it was manners.

"Today we have a new student," She gestured towards the boy, "Would you like to introduce yourself?"

He simple shrugged as he went in front of the whiteboard.

"Hey there." His voice was a little lower than expected making some girls giggle,"My name's gray fullbuster. Before you start making fun of my name let me be clear, I didn't want this name okay? So don't you dare," He gritted, "Make fun of it. If you were to make fun of it I swear I'm going to make you pay." He paused as he glared at all of us before coughing slightly, "Anyways I recently moved here so I'm pretty new to what this town's got to offer. If you see me um... naked then I suggest you immediately tell I'm naked. Don't ask, it's a habit. I'm actually suppose to be in a higher grade in my old school, and no I am not eleven for your information. I guess the system here is just messed up." he smiled cheekily making some students laugh, "So um... yeah. the end."

"Wonderful!" The teacher clapped, "Now Gray since you introduced yourself to us, now it's time for us to introduce ourselves to you! Alan start first."

I froze.

Introductions?

I was horrible at those.

I hated those.

I trembled a little as the class went on with introducing themselves to gray, or more like seeing the opportunity to boast about how good they were. And possibly (for the girls) also seeking the opportunity to flirt and impress him.

"You cold luce?" Natsu asked as he leaned towards me with a concern gaze.

"No," I mumbled, "Just scared."

He nodded before leaning back against his chair with a smile, "You shouldn't be scared luce. Just tell them who you are that's all."

"Right so just say my name and tell them I'm a loner?" I grumbled with furrowed eyebrows, "Good idea."

"No I meant see this as an opportunity to tell them who you really are! The awesome luigi personality you got! And also tell them you know karate." He grinned.

"And also tell them you know how to do kung fu too!" Happy added.

I laughed lightly at their witty encouragements but I was still feeling nervous.

"But what if-"

"Lucy?"

I blinked twice before looking at the teacher as I realized it was my turn.

"You're up luce!" Natsu whispered giving me a thumbs up, I nodded slightly in return.

"So um I'm..." I started as I shakily stood up from my seat. Gray looked at me as well as the other students. My left hand went to sooth my left arm slowly as I bit my lip wondering what to say, "I'm Lucy Heartfilla and I'm... I'm..."

the stares.

I hated the stares.

The whispers.

I just hated everything.

Even though I didn't manage to look through the whole class I knew they were already scowling at me along with the teacher who was trying her best to bring up her bright smile when she looked at me.

was I really that different?

I sighed, "I'm Lucy heartfilla. Age? ten like everyone else here. Reputation? Loner. The lowest of the low, the one that blends in with the shadows. And-" I paused wondering if I should listen to what natsu told me, I shook my head rapidly before licking my lips wet, "No actually that's it. Have fun here fullbuster." And with that I sat back down almost immediately after I said his surname.

Once I sat down, I almost laughed.

You should've seen their faces. Everywhere their mouths hanging open still scowling at me, the teacher especially. Yeah you should've seen her especially, her glasses were tilted a little as her mouth closed and opened rapidly. They were absolutely speechless! And I had never been so proud of myself.

But gray was different. He simple raised his eyebrow with a slight smile on his face before the teacher turned all of our attention on her as she began talking about the american revolution... again.

"what a sight eh luce?" Natsu grinned as he slung an arm over me before laughing along with happy who was hovering just right above us. I tried my best to not go slamming down onto the table by natsu's imaginary pressure on me.

since I couldn't talk to him during class or I would look like a fool, I simply nodded with a smile.

~0~

Lunch break rolled in and we were excused from class and into the cafeteria, or wherever we wanted to go.

Me, natsu and happy went on our daily routine to the swings. It was still rusty as ever and the seats were also as dusty as ever. I opened my back pack and took out my ham and cheese sandwich that I made for myself, I also brought out two small apple flavored juice boxes with orange straws. Slowly I unwrapped the straw and poked it into the juice box slurping it while humming. Natsu held the juice box in his hands, not once drinking from it. He did that everyday, in fact he never drank or ate anything I gave him before. I mean how could he anyways? Meanwhile, Happy lazily slept on top of the swing purring softly.

We started to swing slowly to the beat of my humming, four beats to be exact. But they weren't fast, or slow, they were constant. And i made sure it was constant.

The sky on that day was dull and had a grayish color to it. But it didn't rain, so I figured it was either sleepy or moody. I smiled upwards as I continued to swing with the straw and juice box still in my mouth. Lately during that week the sky had gotten a lot of mood swings, maybe it was having a temper? Who knew? It never told me anything, and I sure wished it did.

"Do you think it's going to rain today?" Natsu asked.

"No." I replied back simply.

"why not?"

"The sky has been this color since the beginning of this week. So I don't think it's going to rain today, especially on a thursday."

"Well I think it's going to rain today." he said back with a little pride laced in his voice.

"How are you so sure?"

"I'm not, I said I THINK it's going to rain." He smirked making me grumble a little, "But actually I am pretty sure that it's going to rain."

I shot him a look of confusion, "Why do you think that-"

"Not think, I'm sure." He interrupted still with that stupid smirk on his face.

"Fine then why are you sure that it's going to rain?" My feet came to an abrupt stop as I turned to face him. He however continued swinging with the juice box settled on the mat. For a moment he was silent and had a smile on his lips still staring at the dull sky. Second by second his fingers would drum lightly on the cold metal chains as his feet would kick up and down on a steady beat.

Natsu looked at me, "Because my gut told me so."

I scoffed, "Your gut can't talk."

His swinging became slower and slower, "Hmm well maybe for you it can't talk. But for me it talks to me almost everyday."

"But it's not possible." I muttered.

Finally he stopped as his feet came sliding onto the mat. He grinned before his index finger went to poke my head lightly, "Let's put it this way, you know that little voice at the back of your head that tells you what to do and what not to do?"

"My conscious right?"

"You could say that, but it's actually your gut." He said playing with the end of his hoodie.

"Tch yeah right. My gut isn't in my head." I huffed.

He paused for a while pondering on whatever was going on in his head. The smile was still lingering on his lips that made me confused for a second. It was evident that I won because there's no possible explanation for your gut to be in your head. I learnt where it was in science class.

"Your gut is a functioning..." He paused, "thingy in your body right?"

I nodded.

"I think that everything can think. And they need some sort of brain to think right?"

I tilted my head.

what?

"So since your gut's in your body it should use your brain to think! Since you share the same brain as your gut you'll probably get confused with your own and the gut's, which means whatever decision your gut makes you'll probably make it too!" He exclaimed throwing his hands up in the air, "I am such a genius."

"That didn't make sense at all!" I shouted before bumping his head lightly with my fist earning a soft ow from him, "what kind of logic is that? I bet you didn't even come up with it until just now."

His hands went up in defense whilst his head shook rapidly, "Nu uh! That logic makes perfect sense miss know it all!"

"Thank you, I am smart after all." I grinned.

His face lit up in playful annoyance spitting out poor accusations that made me laugh. That was the thing I liked about lunch breaks, the witty and fun moments with natsu and happy. Probably one of the only times that I could actually enjoy myself during school than listen to harsh words from my classmates and sit through boring lessons just listening to the teacher babbling about who knows what.

Suddenly Natsu stopped. His eyes fixtated on something in front of him, his mouth was parted open as his eyebrows furrowed as if he was glaring at whatever he was glaring. I poked him a couple times wondering if he was in some sort of trance, then I finally decided to turn to look at what he was looking at.

It was gray.

The new boy was talking to some girls that were in the same grade, they all had hair curled up in the most weirdest fashion which they though was pretty, their eyes kept fluttering as their lips pouted out once in awhile. From that I could easily tell that they were flirting (thanks to the romance novels levy gave me). Honestly I expected him to reply them back with a flirtatious smirk or grin, or possibly get annoyed and try to brush them off. Instead he stood there with a slight smile on his face with his lips sealed shut. It didn't seem like he was annoyed or flirting either, it seemed as though that he didn't care.

Suddenly his head turned slowly as his eyes came in contact with mine. The smile on his face curled up even more making the girls start babbling to him even more. Then his hand went up and his mouth started to talk to the girls. I could tell they were whining or complaining by the obvious pouting looks on their faces. After awhile they soon left leaving him standing there, staring at me.

And I stared back.

I raised my eyebrow as I felt natsu raised his as well. After a few seconds of awkward staring and silence he huffed slightly and walked towards me with his hands digging in his pockets. A tense feeling shot down my spine immediately as I gulped nervously wondering what did he want.

"What does that stripper want?" Natsu hissed as his grip on the metal chain tightened.

before I could answer back gray was already in front of me, still with the same smile as before. Me and natsu stayed silent as we stared at him both of us clutching onto the chains tightly.

he coughed, "Mind if I sit here?" gray gestured to the seat natsu was in.

"But lucy-" natsu whined but stopped when I shot him a look and mentally threatened _give the seat to gray now. _

"Sure." I shrugged trying to act as nonchalant as I could.

He nodded before sitting down in natsu's seat, his feet swung slightly as he whistled softly. There was silence between us, but somehow it wasn't awkward at all. Maybe it was due to his whistling or it was just me. Then he stopped as his eyes darted to the juice box that was settled on the mat not too far from him.

"Anyone drinking that?" He asked pointing at the juice box. Natsu who was standing right next to him with a menacing look as he started to yell stupid nicknames at him.

I shook my head.

He didn't say anything in return and went to grab the juice box. He held it up inspecting it before ripping the plastic covering the straw and stuck the straw into the juice box. But he didn't drink it.

"Why do you have two juice boxes?" He asked breaking the silence.

"In case I feel thristy again." I mumbled.

"Really?" He quirked his brow, "You know there's a lot of fat in this right?" He pointed at the ingredients at the back of the juice box.

I chuckled nervously, "Oh um... I didn't know that."

Then he was silent. We swung slowly as the soft breeze blew past us, natsu was still standing there leaning against the swing pole as he glared at gray still muttering stupid nicknames of him under his breath.

"Did you know that your juice box doesn't contain real apples?" He suddenly said making me jump slightly.

"I um..." I spluttered as my face became red. My fingers drummed the chains nervously.

He laughed loudly "You didn't know?"

"That's not true!" I finally retorted back still with my face flushed, "It says real apples! See?" I cried pointing at the label on the front of the juice box.

"Everybody knows that's not true." he scoffed, "Who told you that anyways?"

"I-" I fell silent remembering that it was natsu that told me.

Remembering that he wasn't real.

His eyes darted to me then back to the juice box before asking "How long did you drink this juice for?"

It was my turn to raise my brow, "Why do you ask?"

"Just a question." He shrugged.

I started to swing slowly, "Around 4 years."

"everyday?"

"almost." I replied back instantly getting a little embarrassed.

Then he laughed even louder, "4 years? Seriously? For 4 years you didn't know-"

"Natsu told me!" I yelled and made him stop swinging. His eyes fixated on mine and so did natsu's. They stared at me, and I swore at that moment they looked like twins.

"Natsu?" He slowly said with curiosity clearly laced. Then he stared at me as if he was observing me- which he probably was.

"I-"

"I'm guessing he's your imaginary friend or something right?" He said.

There wasn't any shock or surprise in his voice, or not anything that I expected at all. In fact he seemed quite normal with it, it was as if he was just stating a simple statement.

I stared at natsu with shocked eyes as he stared back at me gulping as well. Suddenly Gray was staring at him too. I saw his arms raise and pointed at him coughing, "Is he natsu?"

Then everything froze.

My eyes were as big as plates and my whole body trembled, my mind bursting with questions and questions.

"H-how..." I gulped.

"So he is your imaginary friend." He mused, "Don't get me wrong... uh..."

"Lucy." I managed to stammer out.

"Lucy, I can't see him. Honestly I can't even hear whatever he's saying to you. And I don't have an imaginary friend or psychic powers for your information." He said turning back to me.

"Then how did you know... or assume that I had an imaginary friend?" I said confidently trying to escape my nervousness.

He shrugged again, "When I was walking I noticed you were talking. But you didn't look like you had a phone with you or anything and there wasn't anyone around you. So i figured that blonde girl was just talking to somebody in her head."

My heart dropped at his words.

_somebody in her head_

The truth hurt, but that? It stung. even though I knew it since the day I thought of him and happy, it still stung.

it stung a lot.

"Don't tell anybody!" I yelled suddenly as tears started to flow out of my eyes continuously,"Please! People already treat me like I'm some sort of freak! They don't know about this! And if they did know who knows what they'll do? I can't-"

Then I felt his hand on my shoulder, a grin plastered on his pale face, "Don't worry Lucy. I don't intend on telling them, in fact screw them! Honestly these are probably the worst students I have ever met," He mumbled, "Seriously a whole grade treating one girl like crap? What the hell is wrong with this school."

I wiped my tears away and laughed lightly as I felt myself warm up to him a little bit more.

"I know right?" natsu exclaimed beside him.

Since he didn't care, why not? "Um... natsu agrees with you." I said softly.

He grinned, "Oh? He does?" Gray slurped the juice box, "I'm guess this was for natsu?"

I nodded slowly.

"You do realize that he isn't real right? So how can he drink this?"

The question wasn't new to me, at all. Because since day 1 I had been wondering why would I even bother bringing things for natsu when he wasn't even real. And it made sense why he would never use them or do anything with them because he couldn't. Even if his imaginary self wanted to, he knew he couldn't.

I bit my lip and stayed silent.

"So what does he like?" Gray asked not waiting anymore for my answer.

"fire." I answered simply, "He loves fire."

"So a flame brain huh?" He smirked.

"Look whose talking squinty eyes!" Natsu shouted beside him.

"Natsu!" I gritted as I glared at him. Even though gray was beside me and he probably thought I was crazy then, I couldn't help it.

it was just a habit.

"What? did he say something?" He questioned.

"um..."

"Just tell me what he said. Don't worry I don't think you're a freak,"He said. The air got darker and darker, "Honestly I think you're pretty cool."

then something switched on in me.

It was that feeling, that feeling of happiness received from someone else. That feeling when levy and lisanna complimented me or told me that I had good taste in books. It was that same feeling, and I loved it.

"Natsu called you squinty eyes." I giggled as I finally warmed up to him.

"Tch oh yeah barbeque?" He glared beside him as if he could actually see him.

"Stripper!" Natsu cried back as he held his fist up ready in a fighting position. A stupid grin was evident on his face.

"Stripper!' I repeated.

"Hot head." Gray shouted with a smirk playing on his face and he too also jumped up and got ready in a fighting stance.

"Ice prick!"

"Ice prick!"

And so during the whole other half of lunch the four of us including happy, spent our entire break laughing and listening to Natsu and Gray's semi realistic fight. For the first time ever, I had break with someone entirely new that I met just under 25 minutes of talking about juice boxes and what not. Also probably the only person in the entire grade that actually liked me excluding a few teachers. Honestly, that was probably one of the best days of my life.

Once lunch break was over we headed back to class where also for the first time ever, someone sat beside me. Me in the middle and natsu and gray by my sides with Happy hovering above us still with his weird puns.

Weirdly enough natsu's prediction was right.

Right after school ended, it started to rain.

But it rained with a clear blue sky.

* * *

**Author's note:**

**Long chappy eh? ^^; Sorry if there's a lot of grammar mistakes or weird comas at weird places! I'm actually on a bus now and carrying very limited wifi along ono you know those usb types? Yeah, they suck.**

**I'm not sure if I'm going to continue on with age 10 since I'm afraid I'll be dragging the story too long =7= **

**Hope you like this chapter though! **

**Reviews are my fuel! owo**


	6. Chapter 6

_**Imaginary Chapter 6: All it needs is a little push**_

* * *

**Age: 13 **

They say when you turn thirteen it's called the age of "Entering youth", or in other words- hey you're a teenager now. And when you're a teenager they expect you to start maturing, start being a young adult and start being super smart and get ready to go to some prestigious university or something. But when I turned thirteen? There was no difference.

Only pressure I guess. Pressure from teachers and parents. Constantly checking up on you if you were studying or doing well academically and if you were healthy. Other than that, that was pretty much it. Well for me at least because my dad didn't give a crap about how I felt nor the teachers. All the ones that were close to me all moved out of magnolia leaving the school with teachers who were pretty heartless.

But that was okay. Because I had Gray, Natsu and happy, they were with me through the whole way. Especially Natsu because he was there during almost every minute of my life. Sure he would disappear sometimes, but I needed alone time too right?

Right?

Anyways on weekends I would meet up with gray since we live pretty close by. And by close by I mean the school. Yes that's right, Gray literally lived in school. To be honest at first I thought he was those snobbish rich kids because he was a transfer student so I figured. However obviously that was not the case. Gray's parents were actually teachers at school, they worked constantly day and night, 24 hour non stop. So they decided that since they didn't even go home often why not live at school?

I also found out that his brother, lyon, didn't go to the same school as us. In fact he wasn't even in magnolia. Lyon got a scholarship to one of the most semi prestigious private schools called Lamia Scale. I haven't seen him since when I was 10 years old and I didn't even talk to him. Weirdly enough he had white hair and apparently... it was natural... at least that was what Gray told me.

Summer was almost over and me, gray and natsu sat at our old swing set. Me swinging on the right seat and Gray sitting on the slightly higher left seat, Natsu merely sat in between us staring up at the sky chewing his cheek playfully.

Over the years the two definitely did change. Gray's face became more manlier and his eyes were sharper. Natsu on the other hand became also slightly manlier but he definitely did become... more good looking.

Yeah let's just stick with that.

I tilted my head as my eyes slowly fixated on a small autumn leaf floating down, gracefully. "Summer's almost over."

Gray leaned against the chains with a bored expression clearly uninterested on the topic, "You don't say."

"I wonder what's my new class going to be like," I thought out loud, "Hopefully we're in the same class."

"Geez lucy stop worrying so much." He grinned slapping his hand against my back making me startled, "You must really have a big head for all the shit you're thinking about-"

"Language!" I hissed.

"Fine, for all the poo you're thinking about. Even if we're not in the same class we can still meet up at break right?" He swayed lightly, "Plus you have Natsu."

This time natsu looked up at me with his wide onyx eyes and his signature grin plastered on his face. He stood up and went beside me leaning against the pole that was covered in cobwebs and dust, not to mention some ants running up and down along it.

"Damn right you do!" Natsu exclaimed with enthusiasm laced in his voice.

"Damn right you do." I gritted through my teeth which Gray laughed at.

Gray had been with me long enough to know which sentence natsu was saying and which sentence was my saying. Of course for the first few months and weeks of our friendship I had to often start with "Well Natsu said blah blah..." and it had began to grow tiring. Finally after half a year Gray finally got used to it and managed to different shape our speeches.

Weirdly enough he hadn't grown tired of me either. He continued being my friend regardless how low his popularity had dropped and I was grateful. I was happy too, happy to have one real friend that was right beside me to have a shoulder to lean on.

"Besides, new year new people right? You never know, you might meet new people." He nudged my shoulder, "Or even find a boyfriend hmm?" He snickered madly with his eyebrows wiggling up and down giving the "You know what I mean?" vibe.

"Shut up gray!" I cried. But i realised there was someone else that yelled it out at the same time as me. I slowly turned around to see natsu in his fighting stance, his fist up and ready but his face showed otherwise. Instead of winning grin he wore his whole face was colored a light shade of red, his cheeks puffed out and he seemed to be flustered slightly.

"W-what?" Natsu asked with still a red face.

I didn't want gray to think I was actually having a conversation with natsu about that matter because that would just be awkward... and crazy. Not that was already crazy enough. So I continued to glare a gray completely ignoring Natsu's presence.

"Kidding." Gray assured with a teasing smile.

My hands went and ruffled into my blue backpack that sat sluggishly against the pole. I grabbed two tuna sandwiches and an apple juice out handing one sandwich to gray and the apple juice to natsu. They both said thanks and started off with their snacks- well gray was. Natsu just sat there, passing the juice box between his hands. I smiled and unwrapped the foil around the sandwich and started to nibble.

"Say Gray," I gulped my bite, "Why didn't you go anywhere for summer? Usually people go on holidays and you aren't exactly poor. You could've at least went to the beach or something since didn't you say you went there almost every summer?" My seat creaked a little once I started swaying.

He shrugged, "To be honest I hate the heat. So I told my parents I didn't want to."

I stared at him confused, "Isn't the beach supposed to help you from the heat?"

"It's just as hot there so people are lying."

"But the sea is cold, that's why people go there you know."

"Yeah well I'm not like other people." He muttered facing away with his hand hiding his mouth. I started to observe him, his behaviour and how he looked. Then it suddenly occured to me, like a bullet shot through my head I realised it.

"Gray," I coughed with a smile on my lips, "You don't know how to swim do you?"

His body suddenly stiffened and his breath hitched. Gray was still turned away but embarrassment could still clearly be seen, "S-shut up."

"PFTAHAHHAHAHAHAHA" Natsu bursted out laughing. He really was an idiot, rolling on the mat and clutching his stomach as if he were about to die.

Stupid.

"Don't worry natsu's trying to comfort you now." I smiled nervously as my eyes kept darting towards the mat trying to hold in my laughter.

Gray eyed me suspiciously his eyes observing my every move as I tried to stay as calm as possible. My body quivering from the laughter I was holding in and my lips quirking in and out from the ever so tempting grin. Then suddenly my eyes couldn't help to dart down to the still rolling natsu but only that time, he was waving his arms in the air aimlessly. Gray then suddenly stared at the mat, pure playful hatred plastered on his face.

"Natsu you piece of shi-"

I glared.

"rimp. NATSU YOU PIECE OF SHRIMP!" Gray yelled as he went diving towards the mat as he also started rolling around like an idiot. But of course, natsu was always the number one idiot of all idiots. "Where is that flamebrain." He hissed waving his arms around, "Lucy am I close to him yet?"

Actually he was already ontop of him, his hand pushing his face down and his knees stabbing his legs. Natsu was trying to punch him unsuccessfully cursing various curses that I didn't even know were curses.

"Language natsu." I hissed.

He groaned and repeated his curse in a more... friendly way.

"What did that idiot just swear at me?" Gray stopped as he looked up at me with dirt and dust splattered all over his face.

I nodded my head and laughed continuously at the stupid, pointless fight they were having. Because really, it was pointless since they literally couldn't see each other, at all. Not like blind, but natsu was literally invisible in the eyes of gray.

After an hour of non stop fighting the two finally felt exhausted. Gray walked towards his seat sluggishly and slumped against the swing, his legs stretched out both parted.

"Stupid natsu." He muttered before sitting properly.

"Screw you gray." Natsu retorted back with his tongue sticking out.

"natsu be nice." I glared.

Gray was too tired to even come up with a comeback and natsu was too. The two were both patched with dirt and rocks, I bet they even had ants crawling in their hairs laying eggs already. Their nails had bits of dirt stuck in them too and their eyes both swollen from rolling around in the dust. The two kept rubbing their eyes non stop making tears drip down once in awhile.

"You know gray," I said as I started to zip my backpack up, "I have a friend of mine that's pretty good at swimming. Maybe she can help you with it? Trust me, she's a natural."

"Hell no, I'm not letting some girl teach me." He said with his voice lower, "I'm not going to touch water anytime soon anyways."

"Even when you take a bath?" Natsu managed to splutter out coughing up dust.

"Even when you take a bath?" I repeated.

"You know what I mean natsu." He groaned as he started to swing lightly again.

"Seriously why not give it a go? You never know unless you try gray." I said with a little force, "Please gray?"

"No."

"pleaase?" I cried as I went to shake his swing roughly, "Please please please?"

"Yeah c'mon stripper! Think about all the girls you can impress by the pool?" Natsu pointed out teasingly as we walked up beside me.

I giggled making gray raise his brow. I sighed and repeated what natsu said again making him blush a little, "Shut up natsu. Anyways even if I do it's not like I'm going to the swimming pool every week. What's the point when I don't know anyone there?"

I paused as I sat back down trying to process what he said. It was true, I was possibly the only friend he had in magnolia. Maybe some other acquaintances but they probably weren't that close. According to him most of the time he only hangs out with me and I felt incredibly guilty after I heard that. He wasted all his time on me instead of going around making friends who where actually good enough, not some girl like me.

And I could tell he was thinking the same thing because at that very moment, the funny and fun gray that I knew looked sad and depressed. Both eyes staring at the mat while his legs kicked specks of dust off it.

My eyes darted down at the thought.

_It's all my fault. My fault, my fault, my fault. _

"Then how about when you finally learn how to swim we can all go to the beach together?"

I looked up and to see natsu standing there with a determined smile. Both his feet planted stiffly on the mat, not moving forward nor backwards, he wasn't moving from that spot at all.

"School is starting which means- like you said new year new people right? So we have this year to make new friends. And who knows, we might end up as one whole big group at the end. And by the end you probably already know the basics which means we can all go to the beach together!" Natsu exclaimed with a grin.

My heart was touched by his speech towards gray, but gray seemed uneffected by it. I wanted to scream at him for not appreciating that speech, I wanted to scream at him that natsu was right, everything he said was right! There's still a chance! there's still hope! there's still people out there we have yet to meet!

_So what are you waiting for gray!?_

But then i realised.

He couldn't hear him.

Of course he couldn't.

But I didn't want to repeat it.

Because when natsu said it, it was as though everything was going to be alright, it was as though that we were going to make it out all together. When natsu said it, it sounded much better.

When natsu said it, everything was right.

"Never know unless you try right luce?" Natsu grinned as he placed a hand on my shoulder, "Come on, stand up."

I nodded as I wiped a few tears off my cheek and went up to gray. His head was tilted downwards with sadness clearly visible around him. I smacked his head roughly making him wince a little, he rubbed his head then looked up with depressed eyes.

I bit my lip and started, "then how about when you finally learn how to swim we can all go to the beach together?"

His eyes widened by this.

"School is... starting which means- like you said new year new people right? So we have this year to make new friends. And who knows, we might end up as one whole big group at the end. And by the end you probably already know the basics which means we can all go to the beach..." I paused then smiled "together."

There was definitely a huge difference between me and natsu's version of the speech. Regardless whether I said the same exact words, but when Natsu said it he was so full of hope and enthusiasm, but when I said it, it seemed as if I was droning out. It sounded like a normal cheesy thing to say, like in those movies.

It sounded fake.

"You're right," Gray sniffed as he got up slinging is bag over his shoulder. He turned towards me with watery eyes and a wide smile, "There's still a year and there's still a chance. You're right lucy, you're so right." His smile widened even more as tears continued to seep through his eyes little by little.

"Hey, it's okay." I said quietly and pulled him in for a hug, I patted his head lightly trying to sooth him, "It's okay."

Natsu looked at gray with a grin and his eyes flickering with success. He walked towards us, and surprisingly...

he hugged us.

My eyes widened by his actions as he embraced the two of us in a group hug. His hand patting gray's back lightly, "Don't start crying on me now stripper." He laughed and embraced us tighter.

Wait.

I felt it.

I felt his embrace, the tightness and the warmth. It felt so real, his smell of dirt and dust, his arm wrapping around my shoulder and his breath hitting our enclose group hug. Then suddenly, I felt gray stiffen as well.

I looked up at him and I could tell his eyes were wide but he was still smiling as if there was no tomorrow. The boy wiped his tears away with his sleeves again and laughed lightly, "You know lucy, sometimes I wonder if he's real as well." He muttered, "Sometimes I'd like to imagine too."

My mouth parted slightly at his words and my eyes slowly grew bigger and bigger. If I had a pause, reverse, play button I would've done it over and over again just to hear him say it over and over again. Those words felt unrealistic, it couldn't have been true.

"Thanks for today lucy," He started to walk towards the school which was in the opposite direction of where I was heading towards to, "When school starts tomorrow we'll go through tomorrow together okay?"

I nodded with a smile and waved at him. Finally when he was no longer in sight I started to walk home with natsu, both of us feeling happy and content about what had just happened.

After a moment of comfortable silence he broke it, "Hey luce?" He asked.

"yeah natsu?"

"One day when I'm feeling sad will you hug me like how you hugged gray?"

I paused and looked at him.

"Of course I will."

"You promise?"

"I promise promise you idiot."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE DUN DUN DUUN: **

**ahhhh late update? Sorry guys school started today and I also recently got back my wifi today XD And when I did I went on my email and I almost spitted out my drink when I saw how many reviews there were! THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH! I'm so glad you guys like the story! :) **

**I actually had a lot of trouble writing this chapter because I was debating whether I should do one last chapter for age 10 but then i guessed that it would just be dragging the story ^^; huehuehuheu can any of you guess who the girl whose going to teach gray swimming is? ewe hueheuheu **

**annd yes if you wanted jealous natsu here then sorry. Trying to be a little be more realistic because, I mean come on, this is 13 year old natsu we're talking about. He's still as dense as ever. But don't worry! Jealous natsu will come... soon.**

**I'm also thinking of making a new nalu fanfic which focuses on a new prison called... FAIRY PRISON! lol yeah I'm not sure yet though. Because I 'm not sure to make lucy a fearless criminal or an innocent criminal. Ah I'll work it out, it might not even become a fanfic XD**

**Thank you for all the reviews! Love you all! **

**reviews are my fuel *WINNNK* **


	7. Chapter 7

_**Imaginary chapter 7: Like peas and carrots **_

* * *

**Age: 13 **

They tell me "Lucy Heartfilla stop biting your nails young lady". Yeah that's right, _full_ name. _Real _classy.

Usually girls at my age, which was 13, would already be getting manicures and pedicures, facials and tans and whatever crap their parents allowed them to get- or whatever they wanted to get. I however was the complete opposite. Instead of wasting my precious free time on going to saloons and getting my whole body glimmered up, I would stay in my room with a book in one hand and a cup of cold milk in the other. Then once in awhile I would nibble on my nails because they were simply too… _tempting_.

Reading. That's where I got my so-called 'advanced vocabulary' as they say. To be honest, my vocabulary wasn't that advanced. The only books I really ever read were old classics. So I never read twilight, or harry potter or the hunger games. Instead I surrounded myself with jane eyre, Charles dickens and mark twain. Stephen king, however was an exception. Because I was always a big fan of horror- well except for slashers but you get the point.

Natsu and Happy would be there too. Sitting by my side, complaining about various things and sometimes they would just trash the whole room for fun. Maybe even Gray as well, since Gray came over almost every weekend to play with me.

If we were lucky enough, during winter when it snowed we would make snow angels, have snowball fights and make one gigantic snowman settled on top of the highest hill in the neighborhood so everyone could see it. They would know it was by us too because we would write L.G(N.H) on it which meant ( ) .

Needless to say, the past few years with the gang before the "tweenage" era rolled in were absolutely worthwhile. Probably the best years of my life!

Then on august the 10th, that's when everything really changed.

It was raining, typical magnolia. My tattered sneakers splattered on the wet sidewalk with little pebbles and stones jumping up and down once my shoes came in contact with the puddles. I gripped onto the handle of my yellow umbrella and wore a large pink raincoat over me. My blue backpack hung loosely on my left shoulder as I trudged onwards in the thrashing rain.

A reflection of silver and red caught my eye. I stopped and turned right. It was the playground, the swing set looking as old as ever and rusty as ever, the green mat was still there and so were the other equipment. But there was a figure, a tall and lean figure settled on one of the swings. It was all a blur to me, probably because of the mist and rain.

Frowning to myself, I walked towards the swing set and to my relief it was natsu.

It was odd. He looked… different. He had grown tall; his hair had a darker shade of pink with strains of it sticking out in various places. Instead of the once hunching boy I used to know his back was straight and his shoulders all broad. Somehow he looked more masculine than ever before. Maybe it was the fact that I was being delusional at that time, or it was the fact that he had suddenly grown overnight.

Don't get me wrong, it actually happened twice. Once when we were 7 and another time when we were 10. Each time his masculine features became more and more bold. And his voice obviously changed as well.

But at the swing set, I didn't even know how he sounded like. And a part of me was too afraid to find out.

"Hey natsu," I smiled standing in front of him. I stretched my umbrella a little bit outwards so it could cover the both of us, "You're going to get drenched if you keep sitting here you know."

Then he looked up. His eyes big and wide and his mouth was a smile… or a smirk. I couldn't figure it out. But he sat there, both hands gripped onto the wet metal chains and his feet rested on the mat.

"Sup luce." His voice came out lower than usual. I stumbled back a bit, a little stunned at his sudden change of tone. It was completely different than his old self. In fact it was much different than his other changes. This time, it made my stomach flutter.

"I was waiting forever weirdo! Where were you?" He exclaimed jumping up from the swing. I managed to regain my postured, gripping onto the umbrella tighter as a gush of wind went past me.

"Sorry, the traffic light stopped working so I had problems crossing the road." I muttered, "But hey, I'm here now so let's go to school." I smiled and he replied with a nod and a grin.

We walked under the yellow umbrella I gripped onto. He whistled, I whistled. He hummed and I hummed.

It was our usual routine. But it was a beautiful routine. That was something I would never get tired of. Regardless how insane or crazy that sounds to others about humming and whistling with an imaginary person, I didn't care. I was going to make every moment count. Every single moment with natsu count. Because one day, would be the day I had always had dreams about.

It was the day that he would disappear.

When I first met natsu and happy they told me that creativity and imagination is limited. Nothing can last forever, and one day when I become an adult they would be gone.

And I wanted to scream whenever I thought about that. It was too painful.

Across the playground was a tall pale yellow building. It had multiple windows plastered on its high structure. On the very bottom was two double glass doors with flyers stuck on it, most of it was slowly peeling off from the rain and partly because of the amount of students pushing past it and scratching on it everyday.

There were two buildings, fairy tail junior and fairy tail high. Fairy tail high was for both middle school and high school while junior was for both elementary and kinder garden. I felt a little proud and a little excited at the same time that I was finally entering 8th grade. The youth year was near and I was pumped and ready.

"Ready luce?" Natsu whispered hands securing the handle as people went right past him as though he was a hologram.

"Ready." I nodded with a determined look. Both of us pushed open the double doors in unison as a gush of wind suddenly impacted us. Then the smell of sweat, gum and distinct perfume filled up my nostrils almost making me barf out my insides.

Then my vision became clearer. The hallways didn't look any different from the junior building; there just weren't any childish party streamers or colorful kid made posters. Instead of little kids dressed in clothes bought from department stores, this time it was replaced by jocks, hipsters, preps and nerds all dressed in their almost stereotypical way.

There were red lockers aligned on the sides, most of them with dents on them. Some of them had gum and a little bit of graffiti vandalism. The lockers had labels with numbers written on them and a little chained lock on the handle.

Just what I expected.

New building but same people. When I said that 8th grade would be a whole new beginning for me I immediately regretted it. It was _exactly _the same as before, it was _exactly _the same nightmare as before.

Then, realization hit me like a storm.

I needed to find gray.

A second later I found myself walking in a quick pace, my breathing heavy and my forehead glittering with sweat and rain water. My mind went screaming at the possible locations where gray was- or the only locations it knew. I had only been in that building once before the first day and that was when I was eight. Now it was all just a big ass maze to me.

"Stripper!" Natsu yelled as we zoomed past stairwell and corridor, classroom and toilet. Fullbuster was nowhere to be seen.

After ten minutes of walking around the school, the bell rang. It rang so loud I swear it made my eardrums bleed.

"I swear by the end of this week I'll be deaf." I grimaced as I stopped to pant from the running. Natsu slowly jogged to my side, surprisingly not even breaking a sweat.

"No shit." Natsu cursed covering his ears with his index fingers.

By that time I didn't even care about swearing anymore. It was probably because of the fact that I swore too. Maybe by gray and natsu's influence, who knew? Hell, it might just even be puberty.

I slung my backpack to the front and settled it on the floor. My fingers went to slowly unzip the zipper steadily, not rushing so it won't break like last time. There was only my lunch, a pencil case and a notebook. So it was a pretty light backpack, probably the lightest I carried in a long time.

Then a paper came flying out. It was my timetable. Running, I went to retrieve my timetable quickly glancing at what I had for first period. I groaned.

Freaking algebra.

I hated algebra with burning passion. Geometry? Easy. Fractions? Easy. Anything else? A piece of cake. But algebra? Burn it with fire.

"Ew math." Natsu scrunched up his face in disgust. We started walking towards room 308, and so our journey on the flight of stairs commenced.

"Ew algebra." I corrected.

"No, ew math. Just ew. Numbers." He said with obvious disgust laced in his tone.

"What why ew math? Math is fun." I said almost whining.

"Cuz, its hard." He murmured, "I don't like thinking."

"You're basically thinking right now idiot."

"Well," He paused his prideful look frozen as his eyes darted up to the celling pondering, "You-you see- eheh… um…" natsu bit his lip. Then his eyebrows furrowed as though he was in deep thought, "Whatever, I'm not an idiot you weirdo. I'm actually smarter than you."

"Yeah right." I scoffed.

"It's true!"

"Keep dreaming."

We both faced each other, and then we burst out laughing. Little tears at the corner of our eyes, not that we were sad or anything. It was just fun.

Finally we reached our destination, 308 to be exact. Thankfully we weren't late, we were actually pretty early compared to the group of students that came in behind us. When we walked it the classroom was brightly lit, chairs and tables in rows and separated from each other, a cardboard and decorations at the very back and a black board in the front. There was a table in front of the board, probably from ikea or something. A fairly young lady sat there, legs crossed and in her hand was a binder. Green and large with papers sticking out of it.

She glanced up and pushed her glasses up. Then she squinted leaning closer to the table before gasping; standing up immediately then shouted, "Time for class!"

I walked towards one of last free tables near the window- which was the back. Again.

"Seriously? There again luce?" Natsu scoffed, "You've got to be kidding me."

"Shut up natsu." I gritted.

_Don't talk to him don't talk to him. _

I sat there, quiet with my chin rested on the palm of my hand as I stared out of the window into the pouring rain. A boy- or a girl came up to the seat besides me, I obviously didn't know who he she was because I didn't care. All I needed to know was that there was a person there.

I was used to this. Most people would stop, grimace then dart their eyes towards me then the empty seat. I would then be able to tell they were biting their lip in wonder, pondering whether if they should sit next to the freak or not. Then they would look back at the class, probably at their friends who were signaling them to sit next to them instead. Or they gave them a look of disgust and disapproval. After that, the person would leave.

This time, this person surprised me.

They didn't move.

I heard scraping of the floor, then a thump. My eyes widened but I still didn't turn back. Maybe they were just taking a chair out so they could sit with their friends? Maybe it was just my imagination? I did tend to have wild imagination so that was probably it.

"Is this seat taken?"

A feminine voice, slick and full of pride. I slowly turned my head to meet a girl; she was a very pretty girl. She looked like one of those popular girls, but there was just something about her that I couldn't figure out about. She had red long hair, sharp and fierce eyes but had a soft touch to it as well. The girl stood there, hands on hips and chin held up, back straight like a needle.

"No." I replied cautiously as I eyed her suspiciously.

Was she here to make fun of me? Was she here to simply annoy me for the rest of the school year? What was this girl doing?

"Talk to her luce." Natsu whispered behind me.

_Shut up. _

As soon as she sat down she turned to face me. Eyes filled with interest and a smile plastered on her face, "Hello."

I froze, eyebrow raised and eyes wide. Then I coughed hopefully to regain my senses, "Um, hello."

"Your name?" She asked, tone hard and determined.

I stayed quiet for a while. I wasn't sure why I wasn't talking to her or replying to her question, maybe I was just worried. Worried that she wasn't the girl I hoped she would be.

"Come on luce, just answer her."

_I said shut up. _

"hmm." She hummed then she leaned back against her chair. Arms folded and her prideful look still on her face. I realized she had probably stopped bothering to ask me or talk to me. I should be grateful I knew I should. But I wasn't. Because I knew, I knew so damn well that I wanted to talk to her like the time I wanted to talk to gray.

"Then just talk to her."

_Go away natsu. _

"Scarlet."

"W-what?" I spluttered.

"The name's Erza Scarlet." She smiled turning back to me. She shot out her hand and still held her comforting smile, "You don't need to tell me who you are if you don't want to."

My heart skipped a beat. My eyes widened as I stared at the girl next to me. Mouth opened then closed as I felt the living air pour out of me. It had been 3 years. _3 years_ since someone bothered to ask who I was, or even bothered with my opinions. At that moment was the most heartfelt moment I had ever felt in a very long, long time.

"L-Lucy." I coughed, "Lucy. Lucy Heartfilla."

"There you go." Natsu grinned ruffling my blonde hair.

I said nothing but smiled a light smile.

Her eyes lightened up then she laughed. Her red hair swishing from side to side. Finally she stopped laughing then said "What a pretty name. And you are pretty as well."

I blushed, "T-thank you." That was the best compliment I had in months. The last was a compliment from Levy, which I haven't heard from for weeks.

"I'm new to magnolia so I'm pretty foreign to whatever this place got to offer." Her hands went ruffling inside her bag bring out books and books of stuff so advanced that I didn't even know what some of the words in the title meant. "So Lucy, would you like to be my guide?" Erza sat up still smiling at me.

I laughed, a laugh that I haven't laughed for in years. "Gladly."

Then the teacher shouted something to capture our attention. We quickly glanced over at each other with a smile then turned back to what our teacher had to offer.

"Maybe a simple "thank you natsu." Would suffice." Natsu smirked leaning against the window.

I grinned then looked to my back where natsu stood. For a moment I took the time to sink in what had just happened, then I looked up to natsu mouthing the words he had asked for.

~0~

You know its weird how time suddenly passed.

One minute you're sitting in algebra with a girl you just met and you may just very well become friends with her soon enough. Then the next minute you're in the toilet, surrounded with bratty rich girls hovering over you with the tallest high heels a thirteen year old could ever imagine.

What a parade.

My back was against the toilet wall, ants crawling up and down making me shudder at the fear that they might start crawling all over me too. A girl, named Flare. A pretty stupid name to be honest. But then again, there was gray.

The weird thing was that she had red hair too, same as erza. For a second I swore they were sisters, or somehow related. But they weren't. I could tell, probably because of that gut feeling again. And at that moment, my gut wasn't feeling so good. In fact it was quaking in fear like me.

Her dark sadistic eyes glared at me. But her mouth said otherwise. She was smiling, she was freaking smiling. Why the hell was she smiling?

"Lucy, hear**t**filla." She said popping the T, "Why if it isn't the bitch from junior school."

Then I laughed.

And I laughed.

Then I laughed even louder when I saw her getting even more pissed.

"Do you think this is funny?" She hissed pushing me harder against the wall.

"Yes actually. Because that's probably the worst insult I've ever heard. Calling me a female dog? Wow I'm shaking in fear right now." I said with a grin. But part of that was false. And that part was the fear part. I was literally shaking from head to toe chanting "DON'T KILL ME!" over and over again in my head.

"Tch and can you think of anything better? Oh wait, I just stepped on something that was smarter than you, and it smelled better." A vicious smirk was plastered on her face and her little gang behind her giggled and laugh in their girly shrieking voices.

Natsu was there, sitting on one of the sinks. At that very moment I wanted to tear his face apart, I wanted to scream at him to help me. He was just sitting there, sitting there with his shit-eating grin. And was obviously intrigued and amused at the scene.

Then I remembered that he couldn't help me if he wanted to. But then I wonder if he ever wanted to help me.

During hard situations such as this when he appears, all he really does was sit around and stare at me with those _eyes_. The eyes that sent the most mixed messages ever. Half of the time I didn't even know what he was feeling. Was he feeling pity? Was he feeling happy? Was he even feeling anything?

"You can come up with something better, I know you can." He chanted punching his fist in the air, "You're smart luce you can do this."

I glared at him hissing mentally _you idiot. _

"You'll thank me later." He winked, "Now go on."

I cleared my throat then stared back at flare's flaring eyes, that prideful smirk on her lips.

"You are a preposterously promiscuous simpleton, a deplorable simple-minded derelict." I stated simply as though I was spitting it right in her face- which was what I was doing.

Then the room went silent. Flare and her little gang stared at me with deadpanned looks, sweat dropping possibly and had their mouths opened big and wide.

"Oh I'm sorry would you like me to talk a little slower?" I batted my eyelashes.

"Burn!" Natsu laughed so loud that I bet it was even louder than the bell, "That's right luce, give it right to em!"

Flare then screamed the most girliest scream ever imagined then her hand was up. Up high above her head and her fingers slowly balled up into a fist, a tight hard fist. I would know because it came plummeting down into my face. It hurt and it hurt like hell.

And for the first time, Natsu was up. Up and standing from the sink. He approached the scene slowly his eyes narrowed and mouth slightly parted open.

"Lucy." He mouthed.

"You motherfucker!" She screamed gripping tight onto my shirt.

"Hey, what do you know, thirteen year old can swear." I smirked all proud and loud. But inside I was screaming in fear.

To be honest I felt like pissing myself.

"You're going to pay for this heartfilla. This and messing with our kind." She hissed slamming me down on the floor ready to punch me any minute, "Erza isn't the type to be friends with losers like you. She's one of us, she has her standards."

"Maybe whatever _this _is isn't even her standard." I managed to choke out from her weight crushing on my waist.

"Oh and how would you know?"

I snickered. Then I spat at her, "The question is how would _you _know?"

"I-" Flare spluttered eyes wide and confused. Her grip was still tight on my shirt, her weight was still as heavy as ever. But her face had a dead look. It was as if she was paralyzed, unfazed and wasn't able to think or do anything straight. "I just know okay!" She shouted her grip tightened by the minute.

"No, you don't know."

We all froze then looked behind flare, there stood erza in all her glorious purpose. She didn't seem fazed by the whole situation, no, not at all. Honestly, I didn't even know what in the world she was thinking at that very moment. But one thing for sure was that she was going to help me.

She was.

"What do you take me as? A brat like you? No, in fact I try my best to get as far away from girls like you." She said walking in. I could tell flare was shaking in fear and so were the others. Each one of them sinking in the darkness of the corners, or the stalls, most of them kept looking at the door hoping to be able to escape the scenario.

It was a funny sight really. At first all of them were standing so tall and mighty. As if nothing in the world could break them down. And a second later a girl, a thirteen year old girl walks in and they all start cowering in fear.

"I do have my standards, and my standards is definitely not _yours. _And don't you dare," She said in a low tone suddenly yanking flare up by the collar making her shriek, "Don't you ever dare call Lucy Heartfilla a loser. As far as I can tell she's been relentlessly bullied by your kind for the past I don't know how many years. This is what I call a survivor, a hero. And you?" She chuckled, "Is what I call a loser."

All of sudden Erza wore the scariest glare known to man, dark eyes and a sinister look. She didn't even look human by then. Sorta looked like natsu when he was mad at one of the guys who were bullying me when I was 9.

Her hand's grip on flare's collar loosened making her go plummeting onto the floor, quickly scurrying out of the door with her little band of brats. They shouted something I couldn't remember, probably a swear of some sort, but most likely a threat.

"Erza sure is one scary person." Natsu paled as he walked up to me. He crouched to my level and held out his hand, dirtied from the corners of the sink. "You did good luce."

I smiled at him and gave him a nod as a sign of _I think so too. _

Soon enough Erza crouched next to me, a smile lingering on her face. It always made me wonder how a girl like her who could smile no matter what could still be so scary at the same time.

"You okay lucy?" She asked.

I nodded and took her hand helping me to stand up. I then winced from a sting that shot down my arm. Slowly I pushed my sleeve up to find a bruise, a big black blue bruise. It was ugly, disturbing and painful. But I guess I could take it, I had worse. Especially that one time when I rolled down the hill with natsu, gray and happy where I accidently bumped onto a few large rocks that gave me very, very sore bruises.

It was not fun.

"T-thanks." I mumbled dusting myself off, "You know, for helping me."

She stopped in her tracks then looked at me with a perpetual look, "Why are you saying thank you? I'm just doing a deed that millions of people should've done."

We laughed and so did natsu. I could tell he was a little scared of erza, probably because of the dark aura she sent of just now. But to me it was all-bright like sunshine.

"It's just that it's been a long time since someone helped me." I said in a softer tone than before, "You know why."

We walked out of the bathroom just in time for the bell, students from classes down the hall flooded the corridor with chattering and clattering of shoes.

Suddenly I felt myself pulled harshly to something hard. I then realized that erza had pulled me in some sort of headlock.

What.

"E-erza…" I choked out struggling for air, "W-what are you doing?"

"It's just that," She sniffed and-

She was crying.

My eyes widened as I felt a tear drip down my forehead. I wanted to really hug her if I could, but her headlock tightened even more when I tried to stand up. So all I could really do was awkwardly pat her head.

"If I had come earlier I could've helped you go through your school life in this hellhole." She sobbed, "Please hit me if you must."

"W-what? N-no it's not your fault!" I chuckled nervously hoping that she was kidding about the hitting, "The past is the past don't you think? So let's think about the future." Finally her headlock softened and I managed to untangle myself from her grip. "How would you- erza scarlet like to me my friend?" I grinned.

Erza's eyes lightened up, her eyes wide and full of hope. She smiled, she smiled a wide and nice smile. Then she clasped her hands together as though she was praying. "Gladly."

We laughed and laughed as if we had been friends for years already. I could tell natsu was grinning, I wasn't sure if it was because he found the whole thing funny or if he was…

Proud of me.

Either way he was grinning. Grinning like the cheeky boy he was, like he always was. His grins were the ones that made me feel as though I had accomplished the biggest and hardest achievement in the world, as though I had won the noble prize or even an Oscar. _That_ was what he made me feel.

"What was with the headlock anyways?" I asked erza.

"You mean that? Oh, it was a hug."

~0~

For the rest of the day I didn't see erza. Mainly because I didn't have any classes with her because most of her classes were advanced while I was average. Weirdly enough, I didn't see gray or happy either.

It was only natsu and me.

Two good ol' childhood pals. We were like peas and carrots, inseparable. And I liked it that way, makes me feel like we were the best team in the world. You know, like the A team or something. But he decided the name should be team natsu instead. And I would laugh in reply always with the same words "In your dreams."

We sat there, at the swings again. Our usual meet up with our daily routine. The juice boxes, sandwiches, the humming and of course the swinging. For once in a long time natsu finally had the chance to sit in his old spot. He was fidgeting at first, trying to get the same feel as last time. He grunted a few things, which I couldn't make it out, and his fingers would rub against the chains once in a while maybe to get the feel of it again.

Finally he was settled. As always he placed the juice box on the mat where it wasn't very moist. And he hummed while swinging as I drank my juice box and ate my sandwich tapping to the beat of his hum with my feet.

However I didn't feel like my usual self. I wanted to ask a question that I had so badly wanted to ask. It had been on my mind 24/7, non-stop and it was driving me insane.

I couldn't take it anymore so I gripped onto his chain with such force that he almost fell down. He sat up exclaiming various complains at me before he calmed down and turned to me.

"What's wrong luce?" He asked.

I bit my lip not sure whether if I should tell him that or not. I coughed and I sat up straight, straight as possible and my shoulders as broad as possible. "Why don't you ever help me?"

"What?" He blinked.

"You heard what I said."

Then there was silence.

The warm moist air swishing around us.

"You know I can't." He said in such a soft tone that I swear if I wasn't that close I bet I couldn't hear a single word he just said.

"But you never try."

"You know I **can't**."

"WELL HAVE YOU EVER BROUGHT UP THE _AUDACITY_ TO EVEN _TRY?_" I shouted suddenly loosing control.

I froze and quickly covered my mouth with my hands. I panicked at what I just said; it was completely out of my own frustration. I knew he couldn't help even if he wanted to, I just knew it. What was wrong with me? How dare I shouted those words? How dare I?

"I-I'm sorry." I choked out as tears started to form, "I just got out of control I just-"

"You meant every word." He said as he sat up straight, eyebrows furrowed and his lips in a straight line. "You don't need to lie to me luce. I _know _you."

"No you don't, I didn't mean those words natsu." I said my head tipped down.

"I should've helped you, I know I should've tried at least." Natsu closed his eyes and his breathing was heavy, but steady. "I should've helped you. It pains me every time I see you in pain or distress. I want to help you luce, you have no idea, no _fucking _idea how much I want to help you." His voice cracked at end and I could tell he was resisting to cry.

"Then why don't you-"

"You didn't let me finish luce." He said instantly, "There's a reason why I don't help you. I wanted to see what you were capable of, I wanted to see if you could fight them off and finally stand up for your own. I wanted to see the _true _lucy inside of you." He paused and licked his lips. Then his eyebrows furrowed even more, "But you were in pain, you were in so deep pain. You were _suffering. _And all I did was sit there, sit there to see what you can do. Like the idiot I am, I just watched you. And I have never felt so damn guilty in my life." He gritted and tears came seeping out of his eyes, "I'm so, so sorry luce."

We both ditched whatever we had in our hands and went for a hug. We sobbed and sobbed as I stained his t-shirt with tears and he did so with mine. Only that other people couldn't see it.

I didn't care if I looked like a fool at that time. I didn't care. I didn't give a damn about the world at that moment because nothing else mattered but him, and only him. We cried and cried whispering _sorry _and _its okay _into each other's embrace.

"H-hey stop crying idiot." I chuckled wiping off his tears with my thumb.

"Hey _you_ stop crying weirdo." He grinned and tried to wipe off my tears too. Sadly he obviously couldn't, but it still made my stomach flutter.

"You couldn't help even if you wanted to anyways." We were still in an embraced position and we intended to keep it that way for the longest time possible.

For me, I wanted it to last forever.

"But I couldn't let anyone just hurt my weirdo." He grinned cheekily.

"Your weirdo?" I asked.

"Yeah, and I'm your idiot right?"

I looked at him with wide eyes. What was he trying to say? _My weirdo _was really one weird thing to say. And a part of me knew what it meant. My eyes softened as I went back at hugging him tightly.

"Hmm yeah, _my idiot._" I mumbled.

* * *

**Author's note: **

**THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS GUYS DKJFASDFKASJKFHAS IM GOING TO GO DIE IN MY PILLOW NOW OAO ACKKK HERE YOU GO FREE JUICE BOXESSSSSSS NALU FLAVORED! **

**Yeah okay I have no idea what happened to the paragraph setting but it went cray cray (or if it happens to be fine when I upload it then nvm) **

**Anyways, the wait is over and erza is here! :D WOOP! Sorry for the amounts of swearing here guys, this is just a heads up for later chapters in which case will have a lot more swearing because... well you'll see ;) In the next chapter will be focusing on the mystery with gray and happy DUN DUN DUUN. **

**Yes I added some nalu fluffness ;) hoped you enjoyed it while it... LAST AHAHHAHA- no i'm joking. **

**Sorry if your favourite character was flare, I needed a mean girl for this chapter and I couldn't use minerva because I have other plans for her. huehuehue. **

**The insults do not belong to me but to the internet because I can't come up with a comeback that good ;w; **

**As many of you may have noticed chapter 1-3's words are much less than the later chapters and its written in 3rd pov. So I'm thinking about rewriting chapter 1-3 d: maybe, meh I don't know. We'll see ;)**

**I have also made a new nalu story called at the end of the line! Go check it out! First chapter is out! woop woop! **

**Reviews are my fuel! ;) **


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